"Contemporary Women" is the center's eighth annual showcase inviting female artists from all over the world to participate and the response was well received, said Klint Kettell, Chico Art Center director.

"We have some pieces from British Columbia, we have a piece from Siberia, so we had a really good response," he said.

Water colors and oil paintings along with collages, fused glass, photographs and sculptures are displayed in "Contemporary Women."

The show's yearly showcase pays tribute to the five founding women of the Chico Art Center.

"[The show] allows women to make a statement in a world that is sometimes — like everything else — men get too pushy in," Kettell said. "It also allows us to see the diversity in the art world that women make up."

About 40 percent of the submissions came from Northern California artists. Of the 100 who enters, only 65 were selected to be featured in the show.

Works were chosen by juror Maria Medua, director of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

Bonnie Lambert was awarded first place.

Her painting captures a picturesque warm afternoon with streams of sunlight cascading through an empty caf?.